Mike's students aren't unusual. I see this problem every year here, too.

Changing the value that a variable stands for and changing a value _per se_
are just so different. People (and not just students) need a lot of help
keeping them apart.

Appealing to other languages makes no sense to me. When I translate Scheme
closure code to object code in pseuod-C++ I get the same blank stares when
I ask "what does this do?". Furthermore, considering how badly many (but
not all) those students (and professionals!) program who have done C++
before (or are doing it), I start wondering whether the argument shouldn't
go the other way. Let's avoid the pitfalls of other languages.

-- Matthias

Diskussion, Krawall, und das wärs ... überhaupt! :-)